Nation & World News

VA acting chief: retaliation will not be tolerated

Juan A. Lozano and Matthew Daly Associated Press

Posted:
06/05/2014 11:33:40 PM PDT

Updated:
06/06/2014 04:23:50 PM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan Gibson speaks to the media during a visit to the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center, Friday, June 6, 2014, in San Antonio. Gibson warned VA administrators on Friday that intimidation or retaliation against anyone who calls attention to problems within the veterans' health system will not be tolerated. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Investigators said they are examining allegations that supervisors in the veterans' health system retaliated against 37 employees who complained about practices such as falsified records used to cover up months-long delays in scheduling appointments. The acting VA chief said such reprisals would not be tolerated.

"There have been questions raised about intimidation or even retaliation. There is a law that forbids that, and we'll follow the law," Gibson said at a news conference Friday following a visit to a San Antonio VA facility.

His comments came after the Office of Special Counsel said it was looking into possible retaliation against 37 employees of the VA who filed so-called "whistleblower" complaints. The office is an independent watchdog separate from the VA which looks into whistleblower complaints from across the federal government.

But one of the 37 who complained of reprisals, Brian Turner, said he is not reassured by Gibson's vow to discipline those who retaliated. Turner, who works at North Central Federal Clinic in San Antonio, said he was intimidated by his supervisors for complaining that scheduling clerks in Austin, San Antonio and Waco were regularly told to enter false information to make it appear that wait times for appointments were far shorter than they really were.

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"I don't care about what (Gibson) said. I want to see action," Turner told the Associated Press in an interview Friday.

The Office of Special Counsel said it had blocked disciplinary actions against three VA employees who had complained, including one who was suspended for seven days after complaining to the VA's inspector general about improper scheduling.

The agency also blocked a 30-day suspension without pay for another VA employee who reported inappropriate use of patient restraints and blocked demotion of a third employee who reported mishandling of patient care funds.

The complaints about retaliation against whistleblowers came from 28 VA facilities in 18 states and Puerto Rico, the special counsel's office said Friday. About half the 37 complaints have come in the last two months, or after allegations about treatment delays of up to three months for veterans and secret waiting lists first surfaced.

The disclosures have set off a furor in Washington, forcing the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki last week, and prompting Congress to consider legislation to make it easier for treatment of veterans outside the government-funded VA.

Gibson, who has stepped in as acting secretary, apologized on Friday for the VA's failures and said he is doing everything he can to fix the system.

"We have lost an awful lot of trust, and we've got work to do to earn it back," Gibson said. "With veterans, we'll do that one veteran at a time by reaching out to veterans that have been waiting too long (for care) and saying, 'You've been waiting, I want to get you in the clinic. When can you come in?'"

Some veterans whose names were kept off the official electronic appointment list have died, and Gibson said on Thursday that he would ask the inspector general to look into 18 more cases of deaths to see if there is any indication they were related to long wait times. The 18 are in addition to 17 deaths reported last month.

The 18 veterans who died were among 1,700 veterans identified in a report last week by the VA's inspector general as being "at risk of being lost or forgotten." The investigation also found broad and deep-seated problems with delays in patient care and manipulation of waiting lists throughout the VA health care system, which provides medical care to about 9 million veterans and family members.

Gibson said in San Antonio that he has been in daily contact with Richard Griffin, the VA's acting inspector general, and he expressed confidence that Griffin and his investigators will be able to ferret out the truth, regardless of any attempts to squelch potential whistleblowers.

VA whistleblower Turner, a veteran himself who has worked for the VA since 2011 as a medical support assistant, said until the VA's management is restructured and supervisors who were responsible for causing or ignoring the problems are removed, nothing will change and employees who may wish to come forward to report other problems will be discouraged from doing so.

"I will not stop. I will not waver in my actions until they make drastic improvements," he said.